Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

This week I’ve been very busy, catching up on projects here at the Rawles Ranch. In addition to unpacking and organizing,  I worked on our new (larger) hen house. I also dropped off a load of furniture and a dozen chickens that were our gifts to a young family that lives nearby.  Lily and I shoveled up a couple of tons of bull manure. (The real kind, versus the virtual/rhetorical kind from Washington, DC.) This took more than a half-dozen trips with our electric ATV and its small dump trailer.  We moved that manure to fertilize the right side of the Annex garden.  Next up will be wiring our replacement henhouse with lights, 117 VAC outlets, and a fan.

I’ve also started boxing orders for Elk Creek Company, since our month-long sale is underway. This year we are calling it the George Patton’s Birthday Sale. It runs from November 11th to December 11th, 2021.

Now, over to Lily, for her details…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The Lord hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.” – Lamentation 4: 5-20 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — November 12, 2021

November 12th, 1950 was the birthday of Corporal John Alan Coey (died 19 July 1975). He was the first American volunteer killed in Rhodesia.

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Today is the birthday of USMC Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph “Dan” Daly (born 1873, died April 27, 1937). He was one of only nineteen men (including seven Marines) to twice receive the Medal of Honor.

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I just noticed that we’ve reached the 35,000 posts threshold, on SurvivalBlog. I recommend that any recently-arrived readers take the time to dig through the blog archives, that date all the way back to 2005.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 97 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

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More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 97 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

 

 

Nobody Wants To Be That Guy, by The Lone Canadian

I listen to the news daily, and I know that to a great extent they are lying to us. I listen to the politicians give their little speeches and their sound bites, and I know they are lying. I watched President Trump walk quietly away from the big chair even though we continue to see proof, to this day, that there was widespread election fraud. First, the Federal Reserve told us there would be no inflation, and then when they could no longer hide the facts, they told us that it will be transitory. The government tells us that a little piece of cloth over our faces, that won’t even stop dust particles, is going to save us from a virus that is 50 to 100 nanometers in size. We can reach herd immunity with an experimental gene therapy (I refuse to call it a vaccine) that hasn’t been properly tested, and that we don’t know what the long-term effects might be. The stock market is continuing to hit record highs, so the economy is doing great. BLM and Antifa only have peaceful protests. Fences don’t work. Controlling your borders is racist. All the people illegally crossing the borders are just poor refugees from oppressed countries. There are no cartels involved, and nobody with a criminal background will come into the country. China and Russia are our friends, not our adversaries, and we need to negotiate deals with them, no matter how bad the deals are for us. America is always the aggressor, and always wrong. If it wasn’t for our imperialist, expansionist attitudes, peace would break out world-wide and everybody would hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

Am I the only one that looks at the preceding list, and wonders where common sense has gone? How can so many people believe the lies being told? How can our leaders and media continue to tell such outright lies, and expect to get away with it?

Well, my friends, the real truth is that they will continue to get away with it because the general population is too scared to hear the truth! To quote Tommy Lee Jones, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it!”

And why won’t any of our leaders tell us the truth? Because NOBODY WANTS TO BE THAT GUY! What guy? The guy that actually tells the truth to those dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and brings about the catastrophe that we are all trying to avoid.

Let’s just stop and examine a few different stories and events. Bear with me as I ramble a little bit, from one subject to another.

The EMP Commission, created in 2001, found that if an EMP weapon were used against the United States that it could result in the death of 9 out of 10 Americans, within the first year. Now, in 2021, that prediction has not changed, and there has been little to no progress in protecting the country from this weapon. Just think about that for a minute. 9 out of 10 people would mean about 298 million people dead in the U.S. alone. That is children, the elderly, the young, the old, and the in-between. That means that if you are standing in a group of 20 friends and family, that a year after an EMP, the odds are that there would only be 2 of you left. The rest of those people, your loved ones, would be dead! That’s a pretty sobering thought. For most of us it would be an unimaginable nightmare.Continue reading“Nobody Wants To Be That Guy, by The Lone Canadian”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the recently-passed $1.2 Trillion infrastructure spending bill. (See the Economy & Finance section.)

Precious Metals:

Metals prices set for ‘historically above-average prices through to 2025’ – S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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Growing solar power sector to drive silver demand for the next decade – Heraeus.

Economy & Finance:

Over at The New American: Congress Enacts $1.2 Trillion “Infrastructure” Bill With Radical Provisions. JWR’s Comments:  The word inside the Beltway is that this $1.2 Trillion boondoggle (scaled back from Biden’s $3+ Trillion request) is about 90% pork-barrel spending, mainly benefitting Democrat-dominated coastal states.  Take note of the names of the Republicans that signed on to this monstrosity of a spending bill. Also, consider this: It took 200 years for the Federal government to accumulate its first $1 trillion in National Debt. The congresscritters just more than matched that, in a day. It is hard to keep track, but the debt level is now around $29 Trillion. Face the facts, folks: Their only way to escape their mountain of debt is to inflate their way out. Invest, accordingly. Hedge, hedge, hedge!

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At Wolf Street: Further up the Producer Price Pipeline, Inflation Rages at over 20%, Heading for Consumers.

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The stock markets are getting farther and farther from reality. The ratio of corporate equities to GDP in the U.S. (200% at last measure) is the highest in history. Beware.  I recommend reducing your exposure.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — November 11, 2021

Today is the birthday of General George S. Patton. In honor of his birthday, we are running a month-long sale at Elk Creek Company.  Check out the reduced prices on all of our pre-1899 antique cartridge guns, percussion replicas, percussion conversion cylinders, bayonets, and knives. The sale ends on December 11th, 2021.

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November 11th is also of course Veteran’s Day. If you value your freedom, then thank a veteran.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 97 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

—

More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 97 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Home-Made Insulin, by C.S.

After seeing several discussions online in various forums about how individuals with type 1 diabetes would be able to survive post-Schumer Hits The Fan (SHTF), I became curious.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL NOR A SCIENTIST AND ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THIS ARTICLE SHOULD BE RESEARCHED INDEPENDENTLY AND ALWAYS CONSULT WITH MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS.

Okay, insulin is the body’s way of controlling the levels of sugar in your blood. All of today’s insulin is synthesized but when it was first discovered it all came from animals. Insulin is produced in the pancreas or pancreatic areas. Approaching this from a preparedness standpoint I was curious if insulin could be produced at home. The leading sources of home-produced insulin would be the pancreas of pigs or cattle. The issue I see with this would be the potential killing of a food source before it was needed just to make insulin. After some digging I found that fish also produce insulin and if you were raising Tilapia for other prep then you would have a source.

INSULIN FROM MAMMALS

As soon as you can after slaughtering the animal for food, remove the pancreas and begin processing. The traditional method of preparation is as follows — s recounted in several publications, but this method dates back to 1925:Continue reading“Home-Made Insulin, by C.S.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

Justice Department Arrests Two in Ransomware Hacks

I spotted this in the highly-recommended McAlvany Daily G2 e-newsletter: Justice Department arrests two in ransomware hacks.

Jim Caviezel’s “The Storm is Upon Us” Speech

Reader Rick P. suggested a video link to powerfully patriotic and Christian speech: Jim Caviezel “The Storm is Upon Us” – The Sound of Freedom. A couple of quotes from his rousing speech:

“We are headed into the storm of all storms. Yes, the storm is upon us.”

“We must fight for that authentic freedom and live my friends. By God, we must live and with the Holy Spirit as your shield and Christ as your sword may you join Saint Michael and all the other angels in defending God and sending Lucifer and his henchmen straight back to hell where they belong.”

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — November 10, 2021

November 10th is the birthday of the late Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, born in 1919, died December 23, 2013. He didn’t design a lot of different guns, but one of his few designs was the prototype for what turned out to be the world’s most widely produced assault rifles.

Today is also remembered in the United States as the “birthday” of the U.S. Marine Corps.

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Today we present a guest article by Brandon Smith, re-posted with permission. It was originally published at Birch Gold Group

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We are pleased to welcome our newest advertiser: SIRT/Next Level Training. You will surely recognize their name, since they’ve been generously providing prizes for SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest for more than 12 years. I highly recommend their laser training pistols. I’ve owned two of them for many years. These are a great way to keep up your gun training proficiency, even when training ammo is unobtainable, or prohibitively expensive. If you buy one of their training guns, then please mention SurvivalBlog, and thank them for their loyal support of the writing contest.

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We are still seeking entries for Round 97 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 97 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Here’s Why U.S. Supply Chain Problems Will Only Get Worse, by Brandon Smith

It is an economic rule which free-market philosophers like Adam Smith have tried to explain to governments and monopolists for centuries:

Less liberty and more centralization equals less production and less overall wealth.

Governments and central banks have sought to circumvent this rule by printing money from thin air, thinking that they can create wealth while at the same time suffocating public financial interactions and trade with authoritarianism. This, of course, only leads to inflation or stagflation, and thus wealth is never actually created, it is projected like a hologram in order to trick the masses into thinking that all is well – until everything breaks, that is.

Inflationary policies inevitably lead to speculation

To be sure, capital is concentrated under this system into the hands of a select few, but the currency itself is devalued swiftly and buying power is truncated. Speculative assets and many commodities start to see a burst of activity as the inflation grows out of control.

Some of these assets will implode eventually, especially those that offer no intrinsic value or utility, that were only ever purchased in the hopes of passing them on to a greater fool. Others will explode even higher. Essentially, bizarre bubbles in various sectors are in reality a warning of the inflationary crisis to come.

There are mainstream economists out there arguing that monetary policy decisions and authoritarian mandates have no real world consequences. The inflation is “transitory”, they claim. The public will “adapt” to the new normal and submit to the controls for their own good. Central bank stimulus will defuse all crisis events in the meantime and helicopter money will placate the citizenry. Throw the public a few scraps from the table and they will shut up and happily nibble.

These academic policy-makers and unelected bureaucrats refuse to see these speculative bubbles as what they actually are: Desperate moves to avoid inflation. No one wants to hold dollars when they can watch their purchasing power being destroyed daily, so they seek something, anything else. Eventually, most of these illusory safe-havens will collapse into worthlessness (how much will your Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT be worth next year?)

As I have been saying for many years now, an economic crash in the U.S. simply cannot be avoided, and it can only be hidden from public view for a limited time. And that limit is expiring fast.

Well, guess what? The crash is here now right in front of us and it is becoming obvious even to people who barely pay attention.Continue reading“Here’s Why U.S. Supply Chain Problems Will Only Get Worse, by Brandon Smith”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. Most of this week’s Snippets came in response to the recent article: Establishing a Community Corner, by Mark C.

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Reader G.G. sent this: China accidentally sparks ‘doomsday prepper’ frenzy after telling residents to stockpile food.

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Reader Tim J. wrote to mention that the American Partisan website has been re-vamped. Tim notes:

“Lots of changes, regular articles in the center, alternative/foreign news on the sides, Solar conditions [for HF propagation] at the bottom.”

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Lisa in Texas wrote:

“I would like to comment on the article by Establishing a Community Corner, by Mark C.

I would say that an all year round indoor/outdoor marketplace would be a very good idea. We have one “close” by, in Texas terms. It is only open on Saturday’s and Tuesday evenings. The hours are limited and vendors pay a price for the area to set up. Of course, the indoor spaces are more expensive and those that require electrical are even more so. The variety of items are seasonal with the majority being fresh vegetables but you can also find grass-fed beef, fresh eggs, herbs (both plants and dried) and during the early spring organic vegetable plants for transplanting. During the fall/winter months, you can find various crafts including candles, woodworking, crocheted items. and home-baked (individually wrapped) holiday goods. It is frequented by folks far and wide, however, you can tell the locals as they are the familiar faces. The last time I was there there was a vendor located inside that sold coffee and pastries at a very reasonable price. Another thought as an additional attraction, offer free space for local musicians to preform for tips. The space doesn’t need to be elaborate but electrical access would be required. It’s a win win situation as they get to show off their talents while the shoppers listen to some great music.”Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — November 9, 2021

Today is the anniversary of the death of Colonel Ulius Louis “Pete” Amoss. This former OSS officer was best known as the originator of the resistance warfare concepts of Leaderless Resistance and “phantom cells.” He had a fascinating life. Amoss was born in 1895 and died on November 9, 1961 from coronary thrombosis. Pictured is a resistance cell operating in Italy, near the end of World War 2.